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Doraemon in North America
Doraemon in North America refers to the English adaptation of the Doraemon series in North America (USA and Canada only). Manga :See also: List of Doraemon manga (Kindle version) chapters :See also: List of Doraemon manga (Shogakukan Asia version) chapters In July 2013, Fujiko Fujio Productions announced that they along with Voyager Japan and Alt Japan Co., Ltd would release an English version of the manga digitally in color on the Amazon Kindle e-book service in North America. The volumes were translated by AltJapan. The first volume was released by Shogakukan on November 23, 2013. A total of 200 volumes have been released. On December 27, 2017 the first 17 volumes of Doraemon's Long Tales were officially released in the Kindle Store. The same translation has been published in English in print by Shogakukan Asia and it's released in Singapore. There are also bilingual releases (Japanese and English) of the manga. Changes (For Amazon Kindle only) *The manga is in full-color, unlike other international versions. *Dorayaki are referred to as "Fudgy Pudgy Pies". Character name changes * With space constraints to consider, Doraemon is given a nickname and is referred to as “D” in some scenes.http://www.nippon.com/en/nipponblog/m00034/ *Nobita - Noby *Shizuka - With space constraints to consider, Shizuka was also referred to as Shizu, or Sue in some issues. Her full name is still Shizuka. "Sue" was also used as her name in the English dub. *Suneo - Sneech *Gian - Big G *Jaiko - Little G *Tamako - Tammy *Sewashi - Soby *Dekisugi - Ace *Tame - Tommy Video games For many years, very few Doraemon video games have made it into the United States, but Doraemon: Meikyū Daisakusen, which released for PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16), was heavily localized and edited for Western audiences as Cratermaze, which restored the game to its original "Booby Kids / Kid no Hore Hore Daisakusen" formThe game's concept from the arcade game (later ported to Famicom as Booby Kids) was converted for play on the PC Engine, but was changed to make use of a license to use the Doraemon character and released as Doraemon Meikyuu Daisakusen. When the game was localized for play in the United States on the Turbo Grafx-16, the Doraemon character was removed, and the original player sprite was restored, but the game was entitled Cratermaze., because the Doraemon ''series did not make it into North America until 2013. While the series was successful in Europe, video games released there were not in English and the ROM was cannot be found online. Multiple mobile games for phones have also been translated into English, which also available in English-speaking countries that including Malaysia and Singapore, and etc. Fan English translation patches (hacks) for the video games have been made and released on the Internet. When it's made in 1998, it's unknown why the creators of the English patches for the games know Doraemon, it still remains a mystery. 4 years after the Bang! Zoom English dub of Doraemon ended, Doraemon: Story of Seasons was announced to be released in North America, South East Asia, Australia, and Europe in (Autumn) 2019. This is the first (technically second) Doraemon console game to be localized for western audiences. 1979 anime Although Doraemon (1979 anime) has not been aired in North America at all, there were three unsuccessful attempts made to release an English version. The first attempt was In 1985, Atlanta-based media mogul Ted Turner, who founded such cable TV networks as TBS, CNN, and TNT, acquired the US rights to the 1979 anime and planned to air the first 50 episodes on TBS (known during the time as SuperStation WTBS). For unknown reasons, the English version got cancelled before any episodes could air and the license was eventually dropped. Many people attribute the cancellation to the levels of censorship that would be applied to make it acceptable by FCC standards, however it is also rumored that the TV producers disliked Nobita's dependence on Doraemon. According to historian Fred Patten (1940-2018), Streamline Pictures asked lots of TV producers including Patten to get them the 1979 anime, following the huge success of ''Pokémon on American TV. However, the TV producers rejected the request and would explain that the 1979 anime would not succeed in the United States due to it being "too ethnically Japanese" and having content that would be inappropriate for American children''. The third attempt was during the early 2000s, Unbound Creative, Inc. (known during the time as phuuz entertainment inc.) made a pilot episode for network pitching, but it was never picked up by any network most likely due to lack of interest. The amount of edits done in the pilot, the voice actors plus their roles, and the episode that was dubbed remain unknown. 2005 anime Films Nobita's Dinosaur 2006 was given a small-scale screening with English subtitles in Washington D.C. on November 14, 2008, marking the first time the series made an appearance in the United States. An English dub of [[Stand by Me Doraemon|''Stand by Me Doraemon]] was produced by Bang Zoom! Entertainment and premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival on October 24, 2014. Bang Zoom! has yet to announce any plans on releasing it in the United States. An English subtitled version of the movie using the Bang Zoom! character names appeared on Delta Airlines' Delta Studio feature. There are DVD and Blu-ray releases of the film with English subtitles. Another English dub for the movie was produced in the Philippines, but is considered lost. Trivia *For many years until 2014, some American Doraemon fans have speculated on what prevented the franchise from being exported to the United States. Speculations range from the idea that it was "too old", "too long", and "too Japanese" for the American market. It was also believed that the very high costs of the license would be too much of a financial risk, which would lead it to be unsuccessful due to low viewership. *TV Asahi aired 10 episodes of the English dub of the 2005 anime in Japan from August 1 to August 10, 2014. Disney Channel Japan also aired all of the English adaptation's episodes in 2016 and has re-dubbed the US episodes into Japanese. * The typeface used on the official North American Doraemon website is titled "Soup Of Justice". * There are quite a few errors and inconsistencies on the North American Doraemon website. For example, on Sneech's About section, Noby is referred to as his original name, Nobita Nobi. Another error can be found on the SHFigarts Doraemon figure, which uses the Japanese names of Yummy Buns and the Hopter. The Delta Studio English subtitled version of Stand By Me Doraemon, which uses the Bang Zoom! character names, mistakenly calls Sue her Japanese name throughout the entire movie. Mentions * The first Doraemon movie Nobita's Dinosaur and its remake have the continent of North America as their main plot setting. * In a Doraemon short chapter "American Dream," which was published only in the Asahi Shinbone newspaper, Nobita has a dream about he and Doraemon using the super prize to travel to America along with his family. External Links *Official website in English *Official Facebook in English References Category:Doraemon outside Japan